dave.lloyd

At least for a few seconds today. From what I remember, I was using the front brake down a big hill to try and carefuly slow, hit a patch in the pavement (probably one of those water line replacement patches that end up sunken after one freeze-thaw cycle) and perhaps a spot of black ice this morning.

I seem to have made it through OK. Some road rash on my left knee, some on my left elbow and some on my left hip. Not a single scratch or mark on the helmet, though, so I'm guessing that my knee/thigh/hip/stomach absorbed the impact then my left cheek got the pavement a bit.

After I loosened up the quill and straightened the handlebars, the bike appears to be perfectly fine. I do have some huge scratches on the handlebar, light, left brake lever and it looks like I'll need to replace the barrel adjusters everywhere. The worst though is that my wonderful B67 has a big gouge at the rear. I suppose it's pre-disastered now. Otherwise my Trek L200 is built like a Panzer. No problems riding the rest of the way into work.

I am going to leave my bike at work (safely indoors) and come back for it over the weekend. I'm a bit shaken up and I know that I'll be pretty sore by tomorrow. I'll probably stay off the bike for a bit now.

This is my second fall this week due to crappy conditions. I would have bought some Marathon winters today, but everyone is sold out, even the more expensive places. I may just stay off the bike until I get studded tires in.

ax0n

I had an incident that was related to me being a moron where I did a nice fly through the air. Scraped my chin a little, and my hands.

What tires do you have on there now? I think those take some pretty wide ones, and I've been doing okay on a mountain bike with knobbies. Wouldn't a nice, wide cyclocross tire do the job?

jmeier

This time of year is rife with slips and falls. Glad you're OK, I'm still feeling the rib I cracked a week and a half ago (I 'spose that will be lasting a while) But I'll be riding the MTB the rest of the wet season...

dave.lloyd

They're Schwalbe Silento II 700x37 tires, so pretty fat. I am running them close to max pressure so I should probably deflate them from 70ish psi to around 50ish until my studs get here.

One big lesson I learned today is that I should stick to the smoother part of the road if I suspect any marginal conditions at all.

Interestingly enough, none of the Powershield stuff (rain pants and Evap Lite jacket) I got from Foxwear shows any wear on it. Powershield is apparently incredibly tough stuff. I got road rash through it, but no holes or wear in it. Pretty cool.

ax0n

No prob, Dave. I got your PM, too.

Lower PSI might help get the shoulder tread of your tires in contact with the pavement, but I'd honestly be looking at some CX tires if I were you. A little tread goes a very long way out here in the great plains, and you can ride CX tires without worrying about rough riding or stud damage on the (many) clear road days we have.

You could try something beefy like these:

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...s.php?id=12837

dave.lloyd

If it weren't such a royal PITA to switch tires on my bike (well, just the rear, one glaring deficiency in the Nexus 8 design) I'd get a couple different pairs. I was thinking that the Marathon Winters looked like a good compromise of stuff that would get me through the craptacular months here, plus studs for icy bits. I don't ride too aggressively (hard to on the bike I've got) so I don't think I'd be tearing the studs out.

Peter White has a pic of 'em on his studded tire page.